Nowadays, with patented technologies for the production of goods, the possibility of reducing their cost in order to maintain a competitive position in the commodity markets is supported by the rational organization of transportation. Thus, the transport component in the final cost of transported goods is reduced. At the same time, when using the same handling, lifting and transporting equipment from a limited number of global manufacturers, the possibility of reducing the cost of transport operations (both shipping and handling, including loading/unloading) depends only on their rational use. One of the mechanisms for rationalizing the loading and unloading operations carried out by container terminals is the rationalization of cargo plans of the serviced container ships. The versatility of their development is determined, first of all, by high requirements for the safety of navigation, which determine the provision of the necessary stability, unsinkability, the absence of a heel and difference that interfere with the work, the required sitting of the ship in the water, etc. On the other hand, the rational placement of containers in the slots and on the hatches covers of the container ships, corresponding to the voyage rotation (the sequence of visiting terminals on the trip in progress), provides an increase in the share of productive movements of handling, lifting and transporting equipment, reduces the required time for a ship to be under loading and unloading operations, which reduces the time of a group of ship trips on a string. Such calculations are complicated by the fact that the handling equipment used during the loading and unloading operations on a separate ship operates conditionally autonomously, each unit - for its own section of the ship (“bay”). Thus, the task can be solved only in a complex manner, coupled with the task of cranes allocation over the berth. The paper studies the issues of cargo planning of liner container ships from the standpoint of reducing the time of ship’s turnaround time due to rational assignment and use of port handling equipment.